Archive for July, 2013

You will not gain success over night. In order to achieve results, you have to maintain consistency. You must be intentional with little steps to achieve results. This means that you set out daily steps to achieve the goal. Nothing worth while is done in leaps and bounds. There are days you are going to think no progress has been made, but when you look back over the last month or year of effort, you will see that you have made progress. Consistency is key. You have to have a goal in mind. Once that goal is set, you need to set out what needs to happen to achieve the goal. Then you can be consistent at it. You must consistently take action. Do the things that will bring results. Don’t just sit there, keep moving.

I bought a HUD Home February 2007. After I moved in, it required some professionals to come in and get it repaired and in working order because the house had sat vacant for so long. I had never been a pool owner before and so there was much to learn about what is required to keep a pool “up and running”. I was determined to learn as much as I could myself to save the cost of this being maintained by a Pool Servicing Company. From pool parts, to chemicals, to a routine, and how to balance the PH…there was so much to be learned! At the beginning, it was very overwhelming and I felt I would never get it right.

One of my girlfriends has a pool [though hers is salt water and not chlorine like mine] and she kept telling me, you can get this. It will just take time. Before long, you will know what is wrong with your pool just by looking at it. I stuck with it and 6 years later, I can tell you she is right!

The other morning I was out tending to my pool and I was reflecting on the fact that there are so many lessons that can be learned by pool maintenance. If you have a pool, you will relate. If you don’t, I think you still will relate!

No matter what you know in life, you will be faced with something at some point that you don’t know. Don’t be afraid to ask the experts for help. They know their stuff and they will teach you if you are willing to learn. If you haven’t found someone willing to teach you, keep looking, keep searching – they are out there!

To learn anything new, you must have a desire to learn, you must be willing to spend the time it takes to learn, and you must be dedicated to the process, no matter how hard or how long it takes.

Taking care of your pool on a daily basis avoids issues developing with your PH levels, your equipment, and you are able to spot things quickly that need to be addressed. Being disciplined to have a routine and stick to it will prevent long hours, money and extensive effort having to be applied later to get it back into shape after it has gotten out of control. This is true about so many other areas in life including diet, exercise, a financial budget, projects, relationships, business development, and more! Though at times it is hard to see the benefits of a routine when you only focus on it on a daily basis, when you step back and see the progress you see the results of sparkling bright clear water!

When life happens and distracts you from your routine, for instance you went out of town on vacation or a business trip and therefore your pool didn’t get tended to like it should have and now the water is showing signs of being ugly, you will have to spend the extra time beyond your normal routine, exert more effort to get it back on track and make up for lost time, so that you can resume your daily maintenance. Don’t believe all is lost and that its a done deal. Jump in and do what you can as quickly as you can so that the problem doesn’t get to a level of needing more help than even you can give it. You can’t lose heart, you have to stay focused and realize that extreme measures will have to be taken to get things back on track.

If even after all the years of experience you get stuck and can’t get the PH levels to be what they need to be, remember that sometimes things are beyond your control and it requires the “big dogs” to come in and take over. Know who to contact in case of an emergency so that when you need them you can call them to the rescue.

Just like pool maintenance takes work, relationships take work. You have to put something into it to get something out of it. But your hard effort does pay off and you can enjoy floating in the pool on a warm Texas afternoon, even if it takes time to get to that point!

Your pool will have its own characteristics based off of the number of swimmers each week, the amount of sun vs shade, the size of your pool, your water chemistry, etc. You will have to be in tune with each of these elements in order to “learn” your pool to develop the ability to know what is wrong with it at a glance so that you will know what it needs. Simply add a bit more chemicals? Increased water levels? Each of us can develop these skills with relationships too! If you spend the time being in tune with what is going on with a person, you will know at a glance what is wrong and how you can be of help. Sometimes not everything is seen at a glance, but with time, all things become exposed.

Once you have learned your pool, there is a risk to not keep learning. New products come out, the environment changes, things erode slowly over time so you don’t even see what is happening on a daily basis. We must be willing to continually learn and at times step back and look at it with a harder evaluation to make sure we aren’t missing something.

With a pool there are seasons when it requires more work than other times. In the fall, the process of scooping out leaves is non stop. In the winter, the PH levels change and you have to adjust your routine. In the spring, the rains make the water consistency hard to keep balanced and pretty. In the summer, the PH levels change again and you will be spending more time tending to it and putting chemicals in it, but you also spend more time enjoying it. Just as with life, there are seasons to each phase. Learn to make the most of today and enjoy them! Don’t let a summer go by without making sure you are getting your pool time or in the winter you will wonder why you have it and regret ever buying a house with a pool!

Negative thinking greatly impacts the cells in your body. Just for today become the ‘watcher’. Notice how many times you ‘judge’, comment or make an opinion that keeps you from moving forward. Once you notice this pattern of ‘stinkin’ thinkin’ you can start to replace those negative thoughts with positive affirmations that will help you to heal and improve your quality of life. Each time you catch yourself with a negative thought immediately replace it with this mantra: “I am Happy, I am Calm, I am Whole, I am Abundant.” Believe it when you say it, feel the vibrations of the words in your heart and mind.

I have been reflecting on work, specially my career work as an entrepreneur providing Medical Billing, Credentialing, Accounting, Consulting &amp; Training Services to my clients. What does it mean to be doing something worthy? When I say worthy, I mean a vocation that is beneficial, has value, is serving?

Growing up, my parents did not want me to continue schooling beyond High School. And in reality, they wanted me to “get out of school” as soon as I could. Thus, I graduated High School at 15, in the 2nd Semester of my Sophomore Year by taking the California High School Proficiency Exam. This is a test for 16 year olds [or those who are in their 2nd Semester if not 16 yet] similar to the GED that is known nationally. The test was 6 hours long. I passed the first time and got my certificate December 1991. No walking across the stage though I did get a certificate mailed to me. Now what? My parents plans for me were to get married and have kids. They didn’t believe it was right for girls to work, in fact they believed it was independent and haughty to hold a job. In case you don’t know, I am now 36, not married and will never be a birth mom. This is another way I haven’t fulfilled my parents dreams. In the interim to this plan, my parents wanted me to learn to type and I did on an old fashioned typewriter of my Dad’s. I got my speed up really fast, nothing like a computer keyboard where you have auto correct and can easily backspace. You had to put these tape stuff in the slot to correct your mistakes. The goal was to type really fast, not looking at my fingers and reading from a script to the right or left of the typewriter. After hours of perfecting my skill, timing myself, striving for 100% accuracy, I got really good at it. Then my parents had me go door to door trying to solicit work to type. Really? Out in the desert where nobody lives you think someone is going to use me? Nothing came of it. I did some babysitting, until that infringed on my mom’s schedule. I was forced to get a job when my Dad’s health insurance policy was going to go up $100 because of my age and to keep the option of staying on the family plan until I was 21. They stated they could not afford this and I would have to get a job, though it was without their blessing. I landed my first job from my first interview. It was a job in the medical field at a Dermatologist Office, March 1996 at age 19. I was hired as a Part Time File Clerk, but only worked Part Time the first day. They had so much work for me to do they needed me to come back Full Time until they got caught up. Needless to say,I have never worked Part Time. They taught me more and more and more things and by the time I left that job, I was doing Medical Billing. I have been in the medical field ever since. I started my own business June 2004 doing what I had learned to do on the job and through classes, continuing education, research, seminars and the like. I have devoted my life to learning it so much that I know it backwards and forwards.

In reflecting on all this, I have come to believe that my parents thoughts on what was a worthy vocation were wrong. The “Group of Christian’s” I have met with my entire life believe that in order to be doing a worthy vocation, you have to do something that blends in with any skill relating to being a mother, anotherwards it would be best that be a midwife, babysitter, seamstress, or a massage therapist. Any other type of work is “not profitable” or “not as God has called you to do”. Your job can not take you away from attendance at “meeting”. Your lifestyle must be simple and you can’t make much money. Over and above this, our society believes that you are doing something great if you are a doctor, policeman, fireman or someone doing great work for or to people. Don’t get me wrong, these are great professions, but I don’t believe they are more worthy than any other profession. They may outwardly “help” people more, but they are not any more noble in God’s eyes then the clerk at the bank.

In reflecting on what God considers worthy, I have thought about Christ’s life here on earth. Who could have had a more worthy vocation? Complete service to everyone, not just the disciples, but even the Pharisees that hated and mocked him. He clearly states he has given each of us different gifts. Each of us have gifts. To believe you don’t, means you don’t believe Romans 12:6. God calls us to be Servants, to Serve and Love His People!

What is a servant? Simple. A person in the service [an act of helpful activity; useful, providing; a supplier; to make fit] of another.

I believe with all my heart that if you do what you do as unto Him, with a servants heart, with the focus of benefiting other people, you will be doing a worthy vocation. The career you choose or that you land by happenstance, will be a worthy vocation if you put your heart, soul and mind to doing it with a passion and for God. It may not be your dream job, but you can turn it into a worthy job by making it the lifeline you use to serve. You can be doing something nobody see’s, but the behind the scenes work also has to happen for the front row people to get in on it. Don’t let the lack of title or professional experience keep you from serving and loving. It doesn’t take much to serve, but you must have a willing heart and you must be willing to work with all your might…to serve well and often.

The other day, I was at a client’s office and they have an interoffice emailing system through their software. An employee had messaged me and asked if they needed to bring lunch or would it be provided at the upcoming mandatory staff meeting. I was a bit perplexed why the question because after two years, we have always provided lunch at mandatory staff meetings. However, I responded:

No. Lunch will be provided.

I had one of the gals in the office order pizza like normal. 10 pizzas for 25 employees.

When I got to the waiting room where we were having our staff meeting, I saw nearly half the employees eating Sonic. I was like, what staff doesn’t like pizza? We always order pizza, I had no clue people didn’t like pizza!

Later in the afternoon, I was talking with one of the Team Leaders and asked why didn’t someone tell me before that people don’t like pizza. She laughed at me and said, no, it was a simple miscommunication. I was like, huh??? Miscommunication? By whom? She explained that my response had been read like this:

No lunch will be provided.

Wow! I had no idea that I needed to rephrase what I wrote for it to be read correctly, though what I wrote had the correct punctuation, it was read as a run on sentence. Ugh!

A lesson to not just think through using correct grammar and punctuation but to think of how it might be read, incorrectly.

Each phase is the prerequisite for the next. Acquiring physician “buy‐in” must be accomplished in order to proceed to the planning and implementation phases. Because many physicians don’t know what they need to know about ICD‐10 in order to implement, analyze, and make informed choices, most practices are currently in Phase One: Engaging and educating physicians and staff. Take the time to create the foundation for the awareness and education necessary to achieve transition success and ensures you know ICD‐10 and that it is an opportunity for your organization and not a predicament.

Write your boss a letter like this:

“Doctor, thank you for all you do. Thank you for taking such great care of your patients and for taking such great care of your staff. We appreciate you and will do whatever we can to ensure the success of our practice. You always said
we could come to you if we had some thing really important to talk to you about. Well…this is really important.

As you know, we are talking about getting the practice ready for the ICD‐10 transition. You have committed budget to make sure we receive proper training. We are scheduling extra hours so we can have time to learn the new system. We are working with our IT vendors and business partners to make sure our software has been tested and ready to submit claims. We have made a good plan. Everything will be ready but we are concerned. Without you capturing the new documentation elements in order for us to be able to submit a properly coded claim, all the planning, budget, and new technology will be wasted. All the training hours and time away from our daily duties will be for naught. You see, it all starts with you. If you don’t document, all the planning, training, and technology in the world can’t help us.

The new codes are SO specific, documentation elements you’ve never had to capture before must be recorded or we can’t submit a claim. Denied claims due to insufficient documentation and therefore unspecific codes will cause a
rippling effect that means we have to chase you down in order to re‐submit. We are already so busy with our day‐to‐day duties it will be difficult to find time to do the extra work that would not have been necessary had you just recorded what was needed in the first place. I am asking you to do this for us but mostly…this is for you. We want you to continue to be able to give amazing care to our patients and to us. We want you to continue to be successful. We want you to know we care enough to write this note to you in the first place.

So, Doc, we promise we’ll be ready. All we ask is this. Help us help you.”
– Letter written by CPTICDPros.com

I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

Why does a person become the person he becomes? Why do you grow up to become who you become?

Estimates are that we use 5% of our potential of our entire day. Most people desire to succeed, but what is success? Success is nothing more than a progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Any person working towards a goal is a success…because he knows what he is doing and why. If you don’t know what you are working towards, you are unsuccessful. 95% of people are not successful. If everyone is doing it, you probably won’t make a mistake by not. Check your references, are the people you following going where you want to go? You are thinking, acting, talking like people around you, and assuming they know where they are going. Even without trying to or actually thinking about it, you are trying to be someone else.

You need a checklist:
1. A Goal – a man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder
2. Attitude – our attitude toward our world toward all the people in it that will determine the worlds attitude and all the people’s attitude towards us. People will react to us according to our attitude.
3. Think – Think deliberately and with a purpose.
4. The Law of Laws (by Emerson, Cause and Effects) – our rewards in life will be in exact proportion to our contribution and service.
5. Truth – if it’s not based on truth we are building on sand and you can’t stand
6. Research & Development – your future depends on this; something to make you better, love a little more, hate a little less, do a little better job than a year ago…what are you pumping back into yourself and your future?
7. The Strangest Secret – your genetic pool and environment have influence on you, but you become what you think about most of the time. This is why thinking is so vital and a goal is so important. You will become that. You have to establish goals to achieve them.

A man’s environment will change as he changes. You must never conform to the big group, be an individual. Be choosy in whose steps you follow. Remember to think…imagination is everything. Put your heart into your work and you will get the supreme joy out of life.

1. Exercise, but not after the early evening.
2. Don’t drink caffeine after 2 p.m.
3. Avoid late night eating or alcohol (but don’t go to bed hungry either!).
4. Don’t use electronic devices before sleeping. They stimulate the brain and the screen light acts like sunlight in the morning.
5. Don’t study, etc. in your bed. Reserve it for the other three S’s: Sleep, Sex, Sickness.
6. Maintain a regular schedule. If you have off days, try not to sleep in too much.
7. Avoid naps, especially after 2 p.m. and not longer than 20 minutes.
8. Try to go to sleep at the same time every night. You can set an alarm at night to remind you of bedtime. This will help you develop a healthy sleeping pattern and hopefully, feel better in the morning.